Ritah Nkwihoreze

Kumwe Harvest

Kumwe Harvest is a social enterprise based in Rwanda, founded to address long-standing quality issues in Rwanda's maize value chain. Recognizing Rwandan farmers' poor post-harvest infrastructure and practices as a cause of widespread aflatoxin contamination, we developed a novel approach aimed at improving the quality of local maize. Our innovative ‘Kumwe Model' transforms farmers' post-harvest process into a quick, efficient and mechanized operation. This is accomplished by purchasing unshelled maize (on the cob) from farmers at farm-gate immediately after harvest, transporting it to a central processing facility for immediate shelling and drying, and then delivering it to commercial buyers.